Page 137 - Speedhorse February 2020

Charlie Claborn
Charlie Claborn was born April 17, near Minco, Oklahoma. He was a hardworking guy who never got very far away from Oklahoma City. A year after he graduated from Capitol Hill High School, he married his high school sweetheart, Vera Marie Bell, in 1951. After serving three years in the United States Coast Guard, Charlie was back in Oklahoma City working for Rainbow Baking Company, a job he held for some 30 years.
In 1979, Charlie and his wife Vera Marie began a parallel career by establishing Claborn Farms in Mustang, Oklahoma,
just west of Oklahoma City. A student of horse pedigrees, Charlie purchased a 1969 son of Go Man Go named Kitaman. The sorrel stallion was out of a daughter of the great Three Bars, and his second dam was a daughter of Leo.
Under Charlie’s program of giving everyone an opportunity to raise a race horse, he would keep the fees at Claborn Farms reasonable and do most of the work himself.
At the peak of his career, Kitaman was standing for $1,000 to all comers and he was putting out horses such as Bluestem Downs Futurity winner Kita Blue and Yogi Barre, who won stakes at Los Alamitos, Ruidoso, Boise and Albuquerque.
Before it was all over, Kitaman had 1,846 registered American Quarter Horse foals, with nearly 1,300 of them starting in races and 32 of them being stakes winners. The man from the little farm just west of Oklahoma City had stood a son of Go Man Go that turned out to be the sire of earners of more than $4.3 million. Few if any of sons of Go Man Go did more.
Charlie purchased Mr Easy Charger, a stallion that had earned only $273 racing. In 1982, at the Heritage Place Yearling Sale, a couple of guys bought a filly from Charlie for $1,300, only to soon realize they had bought the wrong horse. Charlie quickly let them trade in their $1,300 and add $1,500 to it
for a gelding. That gelding, named Ima Mr Easy Charger, went on to earn $311,439, with his biggest win coming in the 1985 Heritage Place Futurity when he outran Six Fortunes,
a colt that had set a Blue Ribbon track record in the trials for this $557,691 race. Telling the story of Mr Easy Charger was one of Charlie’s favorite things to do. Of course, some of Mr Easy Charger’s better runners were out of Kitaman mares.
In 1985 at Claborn Farm, you could breed to Kitaman for $1,000, to Mr Easy Charger for $750 or to the Thoroughbred Count Giacomo for $450.
In total, Count Giacomo sired the earners of more than $4.5 million. The horse with the $450 breeding fee sired 1,269 foals. Charlie Claborn stood three bargain basement stallions that between them sired the winners of more than $10 million.
A couple of years ago when asked about Charlie Claborn, AQHA executive committee member Butch Wise said, “To me, Charlie Claborn and people like him were the backbone of the American Quarter Horse racing industry in the 1970s and 1980s. People who always loved their horses and took good care of them. Who used the money they earned making a living to breed and raise and race their Quarter Horses. Charlie evolved from being a backyard breeder to being a leading breeder. He wanted everyone to have a horse and to have success in this business.”
Charlie passed away in 2002 after a battle with cancer.
Mike Perkins
As a child, Mike Perkins hoped to one
day own a horse. He never imagined that he would become president of the American Quarter Horse Association, the largest equine association in the world.
His interest in Quarter Horses led to a friendship with former AQHA President S.M. Moore, who convinced Perkins to help him run his annual horse show in Dewey, Oklahoma, which was one of the largest shows in the country at the time. As Perkins became more familiar with the show, he decided to try it for himself.
Perkins began judging AQHA shows in 1970, and has judged the majority of shows held in the United States. He has also judged in Japan, South and Central America, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe.
Perkins served as the OQHRA President in 1981, and after becoming an AQHA Director from Oklahoma, he served on
and chaired the Youth and International Committees. He served a year on the Stud Book and Registration Committee before becoming a member of the AQHA Executive Committee. He became the AQHA President in 1998.
During his time on the AQHA Executive Committee, he served two years on the AQHA Racing Council. He also concentrated on marketing American Quarter Horses and developing opportunities for breeders and members.
America’s Horse magazine mailed its first issue in September 1998, during Perkins’ presidency, as a part of that goal. The AQHA Ride program continued for its second year, giving recreational riders a reason to maintain membership with AQHA.
Perkins also marketed the Quarter Horse in an even more visible way. Starting in 1990, and through his time on the executive committee, he served as a commentator on AQHA’s television show America’s Horse, which aired on ESPN.
Perkins was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2005.
Jackie & Melvin Bollenbach
Charlie Claborn
Mike Perkins
Shawne Bug
SPEEDHORSE, February 2020 135